The Templar Treasure
by flowercrowngirl
Summary: Prequel to New Challenges. Go back to when Ashton and Riley first met and before they had nothing to do with Yamatai. Ashton and Lara are hired by Ben Gates as they are both famous archaeologists and he figures they will be helpful additions. Little did he know, they would be his greatest investment.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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"Wake up, Ashton!" I hear Lara scream in my ear again. She had been trying for probably the past ten minutes. What can I say? I love my sleep, and no matter how much my best friend wanted lunch, she was going to have to wait a little bit. I jump as she slams the door shut, letting out a groan.

I sit up in bed, rubbing my eyes in exhaustion. I run my hands through my messy hair, hoping that I would be able to tame the beast. I yawn as I get up slowly, dragging my feet as I walk to the bathroom. I strip off my clothes and get into the shower, quickly getting ready.

I emerge from the bathroom completely ready about an hour and a half later. "Ah, she lives!" Lara teases, poking me in the stomach and causing me to squirm away. I hated that she knew I was ticklish. She smirks at me before grabbing her purse and coat, and I grab mine before sliding on my shoes.

"Where are we going for lunch again?" I ask as we walk down the streets of California together. She rolls her eyes at me but smiles nonetheless.

"Some new sushi place that opened downtown. Sam says that it's really good; she and Alex went there last week." I nod, picking up the pace as I wanted to get there. I hadn't had breakfast due to the fact that I slept until lunchtime.

We get there and pick a table before sitting down. Our waiter hands us menus and leaves us to look at them. We tell him what we want and as soon as he left, my phone started to ring obnoxiously. I groan, leaning over to reach into my purse and answer it without even looking at the caller ID. I don't get many calls nowadays, so I don't believe it really matters all that much.

"Hello, this is Benjamin Gates." The voice on the other line says. Gates. Where have I heard that name before? Lara cocks an eyebrow at me and I just shrug. "May I please speak to Ashton Rooker?"

"This is she." I tell him, running my hand through my hair. Now I was even more confused than I was before.

"I would like to know if you would be interested in a job. You and, uh, Lara Croft, I believe." he says. This guy sounded like he was in his late twenties. What the hell is he doing calling girls that are fresh out of college to do a job for him? I knew we were pretty famous archaeologists, but I don't think we're that famous. In fact, I know we aren't.

"That depends. What does this job involve?" I ask him, putting the phone on speaker so that Lara could hear. She was offered the job as well, after all. He goes on to tell us the story of The Templar Treasure, and how his family was involved in all of this. He also told us how he had been trying to figure out the latest clue for a large portion of his life, which is the only one he has.

Ben said that he had some sort of idea to what it could be, and he was wondering if we would like to tag along to the Arctic Circle, our trip completely paid for by him. I had to admit that this sounded rather nice, and I could tell by the look on Lara's face that she agreed with me. He told us how much we would be paid, and we immediately agreed.

"Great!" he exclaims and you could practically hear the smile in his voice. "I've read that you two are great archaeologists and history buffs as well, so hopefully you will be a great addition to our team."

"Oh, I have no doubt about that, Mr. Gates." I confidently say before we end the conversation and I put my phone back in my purse. I smirk at Lara who had a big smile on her face, obviously happy. I was incredibly ecstatic as well. I mean, who wouldn't be? We had just been offered a pretty cool job, and it paid well too. Ben had said that there were five other people who would be joining us.

There would be Riley, Ian, Shaw, Powell, and Victor, along with Ben, Lara, and me. We finish up lunch quickly before heading back home to pack. He had told us that the flight leaves tomorrow at 5:30, so I knew that we had to be out of the house by five, so we had to wake up rather early, and that was something I was not happy about.

I wake up early the next morning at an ungodly hour. I get ready quickly and was practically falling asleep as we were waiting for our flight to be called. It was one of the first flights of the day, meaning that there really weren't that many people at the airport, which was great.

Our flight was called and I spent the next five hours asleep. I hated airplanes. I always thought that I would fall to my death in a fiery ball of explosion. The more time that I could spend unconscious, the better.

I awake to Lara shaking me. I groan at the bright sunlight. I don't even know what time it was in Washington D.C., but I did know that I wanted to fall asleep right then and there. Everything was a blur as we got our bags and stood around inside the airport until Ben came to meet us there so we could all get on another flight to the Arctic Circle together. That was an insanely long flight that I was not looking forward to.

"You must be Ben Gates." Lara says, leaning forward to shake his hand, and I follow suit. He nods at us as Lara speaks again. "I'm Lara Croft and this is Ashton Rooker." I look over to see five other guys walking up to stand behind Ben.

He introduces us to everyone, and I shake hands with everyone. "Alright, here are the tickets." He passes out the pieces of paper as I read mine. Lara and I didn't have seats next to each other. I bite my lip, wondering who I would be sitting next to for the flight.

I really hope that it wasn't the creepy looking guys. They had been off by themselves this whole time while Ben and Riley were speaking to us. When we had ten minutes until our next flight was called, I decide to pull Lara away and we walk to the bathroom together. "Those dudes off in the corner are really starting to freak me out." I tell her as soon as the door closes behind us.

"Same here!" she tells me, widening her eyes. If we came to the same conclusion, then there has got to be something fishy about them. It was almost like they weren't willing to work as a team. I had come across many people like that as I was an intern, and those were usually the people that ended up getting arrested for whatever reason.

We talk for a few minutes until we decide to head back out so that they wouldn't start to get suspicious of us. Our flight was called not long after, and I plop down in my seat, not even caring who would sit next to me at this point. I was starting to doze off until someone sat down next to me. "Hey, I'm Riley." I open my eyes to see a brunette boy that couldn't be more than twenty-five.

"Ashton." I say with a smile, leaning forward to shake his hand. I position myself to where my back was against the walls of the plane and I was able to look at him easily with my knees pulled to my chest and my arms wrapped around them. "So what do you do? Like what's your job on this team?"

He looks over at me before thinking for a moment. "I guess you could say I'm the tech guy. I handle all the technology stuff." He looks down at his Converse for a second before looking back up at me. "Sorry, that's probably really lame."

I roll my eyes, pushing on his shoulder lightly. "Oh, shut up." I scoff. "That's really cool actually. I wouldn't be able to figure that stuff out if you paid me a million dollars." I say with a laugh. He chuckles under his breath.

"Well, what about you? What skills did Ben call you for?" I smile at him. I absolutely loved to talk about what I could do. It's not that I was necessarily bragging, but I just loved to talk about the topic itself. Archaeology fascinated me to no end.

"I'm an archaeologists, so I know all about treasures, whether they are myths or not. Ben also thinks that I would be a great addition to the team since I am a history buff like him." He smiles at me, and we continue on conversation like this for a long while.

Before I knew it, we had landed and Ben took us to where we would be searching. The vehicles were insanely large and rather unattractive when compared to the fluffy white blanket of snow that we were driving over. Lara and I were in the back with Riley while Ben was driving with Ian in the passenger seat. Shaw, Powell, and Victor were in the other vehicle.

Riley's computer beeps, causing Ian to turn around in his seat to look at him. "Are we getting closer?" he asks him with a smug smile, and I just barely caught Riley's eye roll.

"Assuming Ben's theory is correct and my tracking model is accurate, we should be getting very close. But don't go by me, I broke a shoelace this morning." We all look at him with strange looks before he starts to explain himself. "It's a bad omen." I let out a small laugh at that.

"Shall we turn around and go home?" Ian asks sarcastically as I stretch my feet out to where they were propped up on the middle section.

"Or we could just pull over and throw him out here." Ben teases, smiling as he laughs and Ian does so to. I let a small smile peek through as he sarcastically laughs before his computer starts beeping like crazy. I lean over to look at the screen. A window had popped up that told us we reached our target. I smile as we all pile out, getting metal detectors to search for the ship.

"This is a waste of time." one of the men says to me, but I don't look up to see which one. I just knew that he had a heavy accent. "How could a ship end up all the way out here?" I finally look up, looking around at the vast white emptiness around me.

"Well, I'm no expert, but…it could be that the hydrothermic properties of this region produce hurricane force ice storms that caused the ocean to freeze and then melt and then refreeze, resulting in a semi-solid migrating land mass that would land a ship right around here." He looks at me in shock as I just smirk before walking away from him. I can see Riley following me out of the corner of my eye.

"How did you know all that stuff?" he asks me as he continues to search beside me. I shrug my shoulders, not really knowing how to answer.

"I guess I just learned in one of my classes, or maybe when I was an intern." He nods and we continue to search in silence. All of the sudden, Ben's metal detector started beeping, and I gesture over to him as Riley turns to look as well.

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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"I found it!" Ben shouts all of the sudden, causing us to all come rushing over. We spent a good portion of the day digging it up until we were able to go down into the ship itself. Everything on the inside was frozen, and there was ice on the ground.

I guess I should have figured that it would have been slippery, but right then I was just not thinking straight. I slip backwards like I was slipping on a banana peel. I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the impact, but it never came. I slowly open my eyes and look up to see that Riley had caught me around the waist. "Uh…thanks." I say as he helps me up.

He rubs the back of his neck, looking anywhere but me. "Yeah, no problem." We make it through a couple more rooms until we find one that contained barrels. Ian got some into his hands, smelling it before telling us that it was gunpowder right as Riley pulls out a plug in the barrel as it all started pulling back.

I suppress my giggles as I walk around the gunpowder to find a clearly dead captain holding a barrel like his life depended on it, and I guess it did since he wound up dead. "Why would he be guarding this specific barrel?" I mumble under my breath, trying to get it out of his grasp so that I could look inside.

I pop the top off before tilting it sideways, letting it all pour out until I saw a bag tied around something with twine. "Hey, Ben, I think I found something!" I exclaim as I stand up, careful not to drop it. The men and Lara all surround me at a table as I hand over to Ben, letting him unwrap it. It was his treasure hunt, after all.

It was a box with intricate carved designs, and as he opens it, I see the purple velvet where the object was laying. Upon closer inspection, I see that it is a pipe. The left side was carved to look like a castle, and as you got to the actual pipe part of it, it was the same material as the carved castle until it became wooden about halfway through. "It's a clue." Ben finally says after I was staring at the beautiful pipe for quite a while.

Ben pricks his finger, smearing the blood on the scroll end of the pipe, copying the words into a tiny book that he apparently carried around with him. He hands me the pipe back and I put it back together, careful not to get blood on me.

"The legend writ, the stain affected, the key in Silence undetected, fifty five in iron pen, Mr. Matlack can't offend." I crinkle my eyebrows in confusion as he finishes reading the clue. What could that mean?

"Maps have legends, maps have keys." Ben says, sitting down to think about the riddle. "It's a map. It's an invisible map." My eyes widen in realization as Ben figures out part of the clue, and now I was determined to figure out the last part, causing me to zone out as they spoke about prison and iron gall ink.

I finally reach my conclusion that I hope was correct. "Iron does not describe the ink in the pen. It describes what was pen, if that makes any sense. It was resolved." I say, crossing my arms over my chest and ignoring the looks I got. "Timothy Matlack was a calligrapher for the Continental Congress." Lara smirks at me as she realized what I was getting at, and I gesture for her to continue as they all turn to look at her when she speaks.

"To make sure he did not offend the map, it was put on the back of a resolution that he transcribed and that fifty-five men signed." she finishes as I could see the look of shock cross everyone's faces.

"The Declaration of Independence." Ben states in conclusion, and we both nod at him, confirming what he had said.

"It's quite clever, really." Ian says. "A document of that importance would ensure the map's survival. We'll have to arrange a way to examine it."

"The Declaration of Independence? Are you serious? They're not just going to let us go in and start testing to see if there's a goddamn map on the back. To ask them would probably get us laughed at before thrown out." I say, rolling my eyes at the idiot blonde haired man in front of me. Is he really that stupid?

After a moment of silence, Ian speaks up again. "Then we'll just have to borrow it." he says nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders like it was the easiest thing that we would ever have to do in our lives, when it clearly was not. I roll my eyes at him, sending a glare in his direction that he did not notice.

"You mean steal it? I don't think so." Ben says defiantly, and I almost wanted to cheer out for him sticking up to Ian and his stupid plans. I mumble under my breath a few choice words before Ian decides to say something again.

"Look, Ben. I understand your bitterness. I really do. You've spent your entire life searching for this treasure only to have the respected historical community treat you and your family with mockery and contempt. You should be able to rub this treasure in their arrogant faces, and I want you to have a chance to do that." Ben asks him how he planned to do that, which was something I was wondering as well. "We all have our areas of expertise. You don't think mine are confined to writing checks, do you? In another life, I arranged a number of operations, so don't worry. I'll make all the arrangements for you."

"Ian, I'm not going to let you steal the Declaration of Independence!" Ben exclaims, probably thinking that it was the craziest plan in existence. To tell you the truth, I was thinking the same goddamn thing.

"Okay." he says calmly. "From this point on, all you're going to be is hindrance." All of the sudden, Ian turned away as Shaw trained a gun on him. I stare at the silver pistol in his hand, rolling my eyes. These guys are freaking idiots.

"What are you gonna do? Are you gonna shoot me, Shaw?" Ben says slyly. "Well, you can't shoot me. There's more to the riddle. Information you don't have, and I do. Us three are the only ones who can figure it out and you know that." Ben says, gesturing towards Lara and I. Okay, I don't exactly know I feel about being dragged into this. All of the sudden, the gun was trained on me. "Hey!" Riley says in protest.

"Then I'll just shoot you all." Shaw replies with his heavy accent. "Besides, you're bluffing. There was a bit more arguing as I spot a flare in one of the pockets on Ben's backpack, and I start to slowly pull it out, striking it.

"Or I could just drop this and we all go up in flames." I say, putting my hand on my hip as I held the flare tightly in my hand. "It's your choice, asshole." Now Ian was staring at the flare in my hand with what appeared to be worry on his face, but it was quickly replaced by a small smirk.

"What happens when the flare burns out?" Ian asks me with a smirk painted on his face before he turns back to Ben. "You tell me what I need to know." Ben shares a look at me, and I nod, accepting my fate already. Hey, at least I got out of college.

"You need to know…" he trails off, gesturing towards me. "That Shaw can catch!" I throw the flare in his direction, but just before the flame hit the ground, Ian caught it with his hand. I mentally groan as he smirks at me before his hand catches fire and he drops the flare to put out his hand.

I duck down behind some barrels as the gunpowder explodes and Shaw starts to shoot. "Guys, get over here!" I hear Ben yell loudly, and we all listen to what he said. He opens a hatch, telling us all to get in. "Get down!" he yells before shutting the door which blocks us from the explosion. I wince at the loud cracking of wood as the Charlotte was nothing but rubble.

I groan as I land on top of something that wasn't very soft. As everything settles down, I realize that I had landed on Riley, and I lay there for a second out of shock. "Ashton." he says, shaking me softly. I groan and roll of off him, shaking the snow out of my hair as I pull my fur hood back so that I could actually see without the fur tickling my face.

We start to crawl out as Ben tells us about the plan to get back to civilization. "What are we going to do about Ian?" Riley asks, stumbling over snow. "He's going to steal the Declaration of Independence, Ben."

He turns around for a split second. "We're going to stop him."

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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I tug at the bottom of my pencil skirt. It had a huge problem of wanting to slide up and practically expose my whole backside. I had signed up for finding the Templar Treasure, but I don't know when this started to become so dangerous. Now, we were sitting in an office, waiting patiently for our names to be called.

We were going to the National Archives to see Dr. Abigail Chase, but seeing as we had already tried the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security; the chances of trying to convince her were insanely low.

Lara was on my right and Riley was on my left, and they were both as dressed up as I was. I guess we had to dress to impress, but I do not believe that we have impressed anybody so far. "This is such a fail." I groan, running my hands down my face in frustration as I stretch out in my chair. I didn't even care if I didn't look 'proper'.

Riley chuckles under his breath, nudging me with his shoulder. I lightly elbow him in the shoulder with a smirk plastered on my face. "Well, if it's any consolation," Riley says, turning his head to look at me. "You look really nice today."

"You don't look too bad yourself, Mr. Poole." I say with a smile. He smiles back at me as our names were finally called. Riley looks confused as we all stand up as someone else's name was called. I reach back and grab his arm, ushering him forward. I guess he was not informed about our alias.

"Mr. Brown?" he asks Ben, but he still let me keep a hand wrapped around his arm. "What's the fake name for?"

"The family name doesn't get a lot of respect in the academic community." Ben says, and Riley nods, turning back to smile at me. I look down to hide the redness of my cheeks, but I still keep a hold on his arm as we walk into the office.

The lady that we were meeting with was on the phone, and I decide now was a good time to let go of Riley. "Good morning gentlemen, ladies. Abigail Chase." she says, first reaching forward to shake Ben's hand.

"Paul Brown." he says, shaking her hand as well.

"Lauren Butler." I say with a warm smile as everyone else introduces themselves, including Riley, who stumbled over his words and just said that his name was Bill with no given last name. I had to keep in my giggles as Dr. Chase had a confused look on her face, but gestures for us to sit down anyways.

I take a seat like I was told as Ben walks away a little bit to look at some George Washington campaign buttons. I had tried collecting them once, but I ended up giving them away at an auction. I'll bet you anything that at least two of those were from my collection.

"Please don't touch that." Dr. Chase says suddenly, causing Ben to jump in surprise. He took a step away, still admiring the buttons in front of him. They talk for a little bit longer, and I slightly roll my eyes. Can't we just get to the point? Thankfully, Dr. Chase stops the conversation. "Now you told my assistant that this was an urgent manner?"

"Uh, yes, of course." Ben says, taking his seat in between Lara and I. "Well, I'm just going to get straight to the point here. "Someone is going to steal the Declaration of Independence." The smile on her face immediately fades as she looks to us, and we all nod in agreement.

"I think I should turn you four to the FBI." she says, reaching for her phone. I lean forward in my seat, resting my chin in my hands.

"Already tried that." I say as she takes her hand of the phone. She nods, signaling for me to go on, which I do. "They said there was no way that the Declaration could be stolen, just complete BS if you ask me."

She doesn't even bat an eyelash at my statement. "Well, they're right. It cannot be stolen as it is very well protected." she says, causing me to roll my eyes at her, and I was thankful she did not notice.

"Listen," Ben says, leaning forward in his seat as I was doing. "If we could have the…privilege to look at the document, we would be able to tell you whether or not the Declaration was actually in any danger or not." he says, and I tug my skirt down once again as I feel her eyes scanning over all of us. Why won't this damn skirt stay down?

"What are you expecting to find, Mr. Brown?" she says, smirking at him, confidence clearly lacing through her words.

"We believe that there is…uh, an encryption on the back." I smirk as he stumbles over his words. She was giving him the stare down and he was like putty in her hands. I mentally groan as I realize this was going in the exact same direction as the FBI and the DHS. "A map that leads us to hidden items of…historical value." he says after she finally gets him to admit what he was looking for.

After a bit more talking, Ben – or should I say Paul Brown – finally decides that he was not going to convince her and we leave her office. He decides to stop at the Declaration of Independence display. "180 years of searching and I'm three feet away." he mumbles under his breath and I look a little closer. I had never actually seen it in person, but now that I have, it wasn't as great as I expected it to be. Maybe that's because I know someone is going to steal it from here. "I'm going to steal it."

My eyes widen in shock at his words and I share a look with Lara. She just shakes her head, just as confused as I was. "Uh…what?" she asks, crinkling her eyebrows.

"I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence." he says one last time before walking away from the display. We all share a look with each other before hurrying off to go catch up with him.

We somehow wound up at the Lincoln Memorial, and by now, my feet were starting to kill. I don't know how Lara could walk in these damn things. As Riley was sitting on the steps, I lean on him by putting a hand on his shoulder and take my shoes off. I sigh in relief as I sit down next to him, holding my shoes by the straps. "Those are so damn painful."

He smiles at me before turning back to Ben. "This is huge…prison huge." he says, looking at his feet before looking back at Ben. "You are going to go to prison, you know that, right?" Ben nods nonchalantly, seeming to not even care about the fact. "Alright, that would bother most people."

"Yeah, Ben, this is crazy. I signed on for treasure hunting, not becoming national criminals." I say with a sigh, running my hand through my hair.

"I'll raise your pay then." Ben says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It's not about the damn money, Ben! You could go to prison for this, probably for life. Not to mention there's not even a way of getting it out of the building without getting caught!" I exclaim, emphasizing my words with my hands.

He takes a deep breath. "Ian's going to try and steal the Declaration of Independence. If he succeeds, he will destroy it. Fact is, the only way to protect the declaration is to steal it. It's upside down." he says before taking a seat on the other side of Riley.

I sigh, resting my chin in my hands before turning to him. "Look, I'll help you. If we can find a way, that is. And no pay raise is necessary, Mr. Gates." I say with a smirk. "I'm not in this for the money anymore." He chuckles under his breath at my words. "Riley, is there any way that you can think of?"

"Ben, Ashton, for God's sake." he says, standing up so that he could look at us. "It's like stealing a monument. It's like stealing him." He gestures towards the statue behind Ben, and we turn around to look. "It can't be done. It's not that it shouldn't be done, it can't be done. Let me prove it to you."

He takes us to the Library of Congress, and I smile as he puts on his glasses so that he could read the book. He actually looked really nice in them. In the time that I have known him, he hasn't worn them that much. He really should though. He looks amazing with them.

"Listen carefully, you guys." he says, snapping me out of my trance. "I have brought you three to the Library of Congress." I roll my eyes but smile regardless. That part was obvious. "Why? Because it's the biggest library in the world. Over 20 million books, and they're all saying the same exact thing. Listen to Riley." I chuckle under my breath at that, leaning back in my seat.

At this point, I had put my styled hair into a messy bun. I just couldn't be bothered to keep it out of my face anymore. I stuck my heels in my bag and I got some weird looks, but I didn't care. If you had to walk in the same shoes that I did, you would be thinking the same exact thing as I was.

"What we have here is a complete layout of the Archives. Builder's blueprints, you've got, uh…construction orders, phone lines, water and sewage, it's all here. Now, when the Declaration is on display, it is surrounded by guards and video monitors and little families from Iowa and little kids on their eighth grade field trip. Beneath an inch of bulletproof glass is an army of sensors and heat monitors that will go off if someone gets too close with a high fever." he explains before turning the page in his book and pointing at the picture with his pen.

"Now, when it's not on display, it is lowered into a four foot thick concrete, steel plated vault that happens to be equipped with an electronic combination lock and biometric access denial system."

"You know, Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2,000 times to develop the carbonized cotton thread filament for the light bulb." I smile to myself as I realize where he was going with this. "And when asked about it, he said 'I didn't fail. I just found 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb, but he only needed to find one way to make it work." He picks up a book, placing it in front of Riley. I stand up and walk around the desk to be by his side so I could see as well. "Do you know what the preservation room is for?"

"Uh…delicious jams and jellies?" Lara and I laugh at that and he gives a small smile, but I could see that his cheeks were turning slightly red. I lean forward as he sits down, placing a hand on his leg and giving it a small squeeze. He turns to me, and I have to bite my lip as I see that his face was bright red. He clears his throat before turning back to the book.

"It's where they clean, maintain, and repair all the documents when they're not on display or in the vault. Now, when the case needs work, they take it out of the vault, directly across the hall, and into the preservation room." he says with a small smile on his face. "The best time for us, or Ian, to steal it would be during the gala this weekend when the guards are distracted by the VIPs upstairs. But we'll make our way to the preservation room where there's much less security." He finishes, leaning back in his chair with a smile.

"This might be possible." Riley says as he flips through the pages. I nod in agreement as I have a smile plastered on my face.

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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"So what are we doing, exactly?" I ask Riley as I get out of the red van and he closes the door behind me. "I'm not exactly good with the whole technology thing either, so could you dumb it down?" He smirks at me before hoisting a bag up higher on his shoulder.

"You'll see." he says before walking ahead of me. I roll my eyes at his back before following, although I couldn't help a small little smile peeking through. We made our way down into the subway by taking an escalator. Riley ushers me forward since I had no idea where I was going. We finally made it to a room that was clearly for employees only, but I guess this wasn't as bad as stealing the Declaration of Independence.

He gets all of his gear set up as I watch in awe. He really knew his stuff. I grin slightly as he looks up to see me watching, and he gives a tiny smile before hovering back over his work. "Here, take this." he says, handing me some wires as he passes by me to drill a hole into a pipe. "Put it up this until I tell you to stop."

I smile, nodding at him as I sit down on the stool next to him to be in a better position. I continue to push the wires up. "Okay, keep going." he says, and I do as told. "Stop." He records a few seconds of empty hallway security footage before telling me to go again until he stops me. He records the preservation room, and then we were done.

"Well, that was easier than I expected it to be." I say with a wide grin on my face as we exit the subway and make our way back to the van. Riley shakes his head, smiling at me.

"We're not done yet." I pout as we get back in the van and Riley drives to the National Archive. "So what other jobs have you done before this one?" he asks me as I turn to look at him.

"Well, I've technically been doing jobs since I was seven years old, but I just wasn't paid because it was something that I loved to do as a kid. My dad and Lara's dad were 'archaeology buddies', I guess you could say. That's how Lara and I met. We've been into this stuff ever since. Well, not being national criminals, but you know what I mean." He chuckles softly as we pull to a stop. "What about you? What did you do before Ben recruited you?"

"I worked in a tiny cubicle as a technology assistant to a small company. It was the most boring job I have ever had, and I haven't had many jobs." I giggle under my breath as pink rises to his cheeks as he turns to mess around with the object in his hand.

"Okay, so what's that? I mean, I know it's a camera, but I don't exactly think it's going to be used for taking pictures of the Declaration when we're going to have it in our hands anyways." I laugh at how stupid I sounded, causing Riley to smile.

"Look." he says, gesturing towards the back, and I do. He points a green laser coming from the camera at the thermometer in the back of his van, and I watch as the temperature rises. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Very cool." I tell him, stretching out in my seat. "Okay, Riley, let's get this show on the road." He nods at me before we both get out of the van, and we walk shoulder to shoulder into the National Archives building, causing me to smile. He gets the camera out and pretends to point it at a couple things before zooming in on the Declaration and he presses a button that causes the green laser to shoot out. I don't know how people didn't notice a random green laser, but they didn't.

"What now?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest as I subtly look back at the display before turning back to the one Riley and I were pretending to focus on.

"Now we wait." he says. I nod at him. All of the sudden, guards come, ushering the older woman who was viewing the Declaration away from it. "See?" he says with a smirk, and I smile. We were going to be really good national criminals. Okay, wait, that is not a good thing. "Come on, let's get back to the van." Riley says, snapping me out of my thoughts as I nod at him.

We sat in the back with Riley's laptop in between us while sharing a bag of potato chips. For some reason, he had them stashed in the back of his van. I mean, it's not like I blame him. They definitely came in handy as we were both starving. We both smile as we see the screen. On the right, it showed the security cameras at that time and on the left, there was the footage that we had recorded. As we watched, the Declaration was being taken out of the vault and into the preservation room. "Our evil plan is working." Riley says without missing a beat, and I laugh at him before we go back to the front and drive away from the National Archives.

"This is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever had to wear. There is no way to wear pants over a dress!" I say with a groan as I try and adjust myself again, but it was not working for me. Ben handed me my nametag as I rolled my eyes. The boys were sitting in the front while Lara and I got stuck in the back, bumping into everything as we made turns.

"Remember, we'll go in, sneak off to the bathroom, and change out of the uniforms. Ashton and Lara, you are going to be with me until I go into the preservation room. Not being there alone will look better. Then, Ashton, you're going to come back to the van with Riley until I come back out." We both nod as I make sure my heels are hidden. Ben and Lara exit, and as I was about to leave, Riley stops me to say something.

"Hey, uh, Ashton?" he says, making me stop in my tracks to turn around and face him. "Be careful in there, okay? Like, don't get caught."

I send him a sweet smile before stepping down onto the ground. "I'll be sure to do that Riley." I say before closing the door behind me with a slight wave towards him. Thankfully, it was dark, so neither Ben nor Lara could see the pinkness of my cheeks.

We walk into together, showing the guards our IDs before we split up to go to the bathroom, Lara coming with me, of course. I let out a sigh as I pull the makeup out of the garbage bag I was carrying in, as well as my shoes, purse, and jewelry. I didn't think that janitors would wear heavy makeup like they were going to a party, so I figured that it would be the best idea.

I take the janitor's outfit off, stuffing it in the trashcan as Lara does the same. We both apply makeup, only mine matched my dress and Lara's matched hers. I slide on my heels and put on my jewelry, smoothing out my dress as I did so. I finally put my purse on my shoulder and let it hang down as we both stepped out. "Ben, are you out of the bathroom yet?" I ask him, pressing the earpiece in so that I could hear his response better.

"Yes, I went to go see Abigail. Grab some champagne on the way over here." he says, and I smile to myself. Oh God, I freaking love champagne. I'm not even classy either. I just think that it tastes so good.

"Can't wait to get that alcohol, hm?" Lara asks with a smirk pulling at her lips. I lightly shove her shoulder with a smile.

"Ashton, I swear to God, if you get drunk…" Riley starts to say, but he didn't even get to finish because I was laughing so hard. I finally collect myself before heading out to the main room and grabbing a glass off the waiter's tray and trying to spot Abigail and Ben. I finally spot them, practically in the middle of the room. We walk over right as I see them switching champagne glasses, and I smile to myself. Oh, yeah.

"I'm sure you remember these two lovely ladies." Ben says, gesturing towards us as we walk up to the two of them.

"Ah, yes. This is Ms. Butler and Ms. Morgan." she says to the guy standing to her left that I had just now noticed. I reach forward and shake his hand as Abigail turns back to us. "It's nice to see you."

"You too, Dr. Chase. I assume you received Paul's gift. He was very excited about giving it to you." I say, biting my lip but let out a sigh of relief under my breath as she nods her head.

"Yes, I did, actually. He tells me that you used to collect them as well." I nod at her and we talk for a little bit before I hear Riley speak through the microphones.

"Hey, Ash, wrap it up." I smile at Abigail before the conversation is directed back towards Ben, or in this case, Paul Brown. He had one glass of champagne held up and the other – which I assume was Abigail's – he was holding by the end so not to get his fingerprints and smudge hers. Otherwise, our plan would never work.

"Here's a toast." he says, and I raise my glass as well. "Here's a toast to high treason. That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have hanged, beheaded, and, oh, and my personal favorite, had their entrails cut out and burned." I widen my eyes at his words, even though it was all true. "So here's to the men who did what was considered wrong in order to do what they knew was right."

I had to hold back a laugh as Ben completely chugged his glass of champagne as Abigail, Lara, the other guy, and I all just sipped at it. We walk away together before I broke away casually, sipping at my alcohol. I finally finish it and place it on a tray before heading out to the van by myself. I slide off my heels before walking in the muddy grass. "Hey." Riley says to me as I open the door and step inside.

"Hello, Mr. Poole." I say, sitting down next to him. "God, it was so awkward. Literally everyone was dressed in black and white and I just stuck out like a sore thumb." I laugh at myself as I rest my chin in my hands.

Riley looks up from his computer to look towards me. "I'm sure you looked fine." he mumbles under his breath. I almost wanted him to repeat what he said, just so that I could I hear it again, but I didn't, even though I really wanted him to.

"We're here." I suddenly hear Ben say over the microphones. That was actually a pretty smart call on Riley's part. I would have to tell him that later. I listen as Ben lists off the letters for the password and Riley puts them into an anagram converter kind of thing. Meanwhile, I was listing off different options in my head while Riley was doing it aloud.

"It's Valley Forge." Lara says over the microphone and I smile even though she could not hear me. "She pressed the 'e' and 'l' twice."

I watch on the laptop as Ben and Lara enter the preservation room together. I lean back against the wall, stretching my legs out. "You're doing great, guys." Riley says as he takes the sheet off of the case slowly, just staring at it for a moment of awe. I would have too, had I been there. I don't exactly know why I wasn't allowed to go, but I was not. It was kind of upsetting actually, but I'd get over it.

My eyes start to droop close until I hear Riley tapping buttons on his computer feverishly, and I immediately sit up. "I lost my feed." he says as all I could see was static on the left side of the screen. "I don't know where anyone is. I have nothing, Ben, I have nothing!" I clutch onto his arm to get him to calm down a bit. "Get out of there. Get out of there now." Only when he stops talking did he notice the hand on his arm, and he smiles at me for a second before Ben starts to talk again.

"I'm taking the whole thing. We'll get it out in the elevator." I jump as I hear gunshots, and squeeze harder on Riley's arm. I swear to God if they just got shot, I will beat the shit out of whoever did it. "We're in the elevator." Ben says, causing me to let out a sigh of relief. "Ian's here. There was a shooting."

"I hate that guy." Riley mumbles under his breath, and I couldn't help but agree with him. Riley moves to the driver's seat, and I follow him and sit in the passenger's seat. I was so not sitting in the back this time.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, letting out a groan. "This is awful." I mumble under my breath, and I watch as Riley nods in agreement. Finally we see Ben coming out with Lara tailing behind him. Unfortunately, behind the both of them was none other than Abigail Chase.

"Uh, Ben. You got mean Archives lady on your back." I say, hoping that he heard me as Lara gets in the car by way of the side door. I get out since Ben would probably want the front seat since this had gone to hell very quickly. I hear an argument and sneak around the front of the car.

"Ashton, get in the car!" I hear Ben yell as alarms were going off and Abigail crossed the road with the Declaration in her hands, but a semi pulls to a stop, almost running her over. I could tell that some of Ian's goons got out of the car and tried grabbing for the Declaration. "Bad, bad, bad!" Ben yells.

I make a break for it, thankful that I had taken off my heels. "Ashton!" Riley yells, but I don't listen. First of all, we needed the Declaration. Second of all, I was so not going to let Ian take Abigail. Who knows what he would do to her?

"Get the hell away, asshole."

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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"Shaw, we don't have time!" Ian yells as the alarms were still blaring, and I still stood my ground even though I was like ten times smaller than he was. I could hear Riley yelling at me to come back over the earpiece, but it's not like I was going to listen.

I watch as one of the men fires at the van, taking out one of the headlights. "Just take them both!" I shove Shaw by the shoulders as Abigail is taken away by some other guy that Ian must have hired after the Arctic Circle. I bring my knee up swiftly, kicking him in the wrong place as he crumples to the ground. I didn't exactly know how to fight, but I was sure as hell going to try. Note to self, look into taekwondo classes.

"Ashton!" Riley finally yells from the van, causing Ian to look over at him with a smirk clearly plastered on his face.

"Grab the geek's girlfriend and let's go!" I kick my legs in every single direction as two of them pick me up, one on the right and one on the left. Jesus, what the hell did I get myself into?

I was thrown into the back of the semi-truck without much soft landing at all, landing right on my face. I groan as I slowly sit up, seeing Abigail in the corner, clutching the Declaration to her chest. "Lauren, what is going on?!" she asks me with a panicked look on her face. Well, we were going to prison anyways, so I might as well tell her the truth.

"My name's Ashton Rooker, by the way. We told you someone was going to steal the Declaration, and you didn't listen, so we stole it to protect it." I say with a sigh, leaning back against the wall of the semi.

"Ash, are you okay?!" I hear Lara yell over the earpiece loudly. Apparently, it was too loud since one of the guys yanked it out of my ear and stomped on it until it was crushed into a million pieces.

"I don't have insurance on that!" I protest sarcastically, smirking at him before he leans down to my level and I spit in his face, causing him to backhand me across the face. I refuse to give him the satisfaction of yelling out in pain, so I just keep my mouth shut and hope for the best as Abigail looks at me with wide eyes. I send her a small smile.

I gasp as we make a sharp turn, and I hit my head on a counter before stumbling to my feet as the men were getting closer to the blonde woman holding onto the piece of paper with her life. It was either her or them; I knew we were out of this equation as soon as the alarm started blaring like there was no tomorrow.

I hear police sirens behind me as Abigail stands up too. "Why don't you just hand that to me and we can all go home, yeah?" Ian says with a smug smile, and Abigail quickly shakes her head no, hair falling into her face. I probably looked a mess as well, but I didn't care.

We crash through some signs, and shit hit the fan. I turn to Abigail. "Take your heels off." I whisper to her as everyone else was working to keep their balance. She does so before putting her hand on the door handle. It finally opens, but the force causes it to swing open, taking her with it. "Abigail!" I yell loudly as she was hanging on for dear life, screaming at the top of her lungs. I yelp as a bus goes by, almost smashing into her, but she was okay. Well, as okay as you could be on the outside of a moving semi.

I see Riley pull up right beside her, Ben opening the door and reaching for her. I take the Declaration from her hands so it would be safe as she made the jump. I curse under my breath as she just barely makes it, and I take the leap of faith to the door, latching on like Abigail had done previously.

They slow down a little bit and I swing back around. "I'll take that." Ian says, grabbing the document out of my hands with a smirk.

"No!" I exclaim as I swing back around and Shaw appears with a gun in his hand, shooting at the van as Ben screams for me to take his hand. I do as I'm told and he pulls me in, falling on the floor of the van as Lara closes the door behind us. "They have it! They have the Declaration, we have to get it back!"

"You lost it?!" Riley yells from the front seat, turning around for a split second to look at me. I send a glare his way, crossing my arms over my chest before looking back to Ben.

"You're all lunatics!" Abigail yells, throwing her hands up in the air for emphasis.

"Both of you!" Ben yells rather loudly. "Look, the Declaration is fine, it's right here." he tells us, bringing out a tube and showing us the real thing. I let out a small laugh, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Now would you please stop shouting?" he asks, mostly directed towards Abigail as I go to sit in the front with Riley.

"Are you alright?" he asks me, looking towards me before back at the road and I let out a smile at his words.

"Yes, I'm fine. Still a little shaken up, but I'll be okay. I seriously thought it was all over for me right then and there." I say, rubbing my arms in an attempt to be warm. "Are you okay?" I just then notice the broken window on his side for the first time. "You got shot at!"

"Luckily, I didn't get shot. Although, I have to say, it was pretty cool what you did to Shaw." I let out a loud laugh, covering my mouth with my hand in an attempt to keep the giggles in. I seriously hope that he felt that pain for days.

"Get off the road, take a right." Ben says, holding on to the back of my seat as we listened to Ben and Abigail arguing, Riley usually having some input, but for the most part, Lara and I decided to stay out of it. I mean, we were just the paid tag along people, and the only thing that mattered about us was that we were smart enough to understand the clues.

I sigh at the realization as Riley does what Ben told him to do, and we end up in a grassy area with trees surrounding us. It could have been a park, but I don't really know. I wasn't exactly paying attention as Ben was talking about the Silence Dogood letters and Abigail was questioning him about it.

"Why do you need them?" she asks finally, causing Ben to snap. I roll my eyes but laugh at his outburst.

"She really can't shut up, can she? Tell you what, I'll let you hold onto this if you just shut up." Ben says, emphasizing the last two words. Idiot. She's is going to take off running the second he turns his back on her, and that's exactly what she did.

I laugh, rubbing my arms again as I try to keep warm. The cool night air was really not doing wonders for me. I groan, leaning my head back against the van as Ben was speaking to Abigail. "You cold?" Riley asks, nudging my shoulder with his, starting to take his jacket off.

"Yeah, but it's fine; you don't need to…" I trail off as he puts the jacket over my shoulders, letting his hands linger for a bit before pulling away and sitting in the back of the van with his feet touching the grass. I sit next to him, plopping down with a sigh. "This is so annoying. He obviously likes her. He's been flirting with her this whole time." I say as Lara sits down next to me.

"I'm surprised she hasn't noticed it yet." Lara says, rubbing her feet back and forth in the wet grass. "Or maybe she has and she likes him back. The world may never know." she says like that one commercial from when we were kids, and I giggle at that.

Riley just gives us a weird look, but smiles anyone and not so subtly scoots closer to me. I didn't mind though.

I shake my head at that thought, wanting to get it out of my head. What was I doing? I literally met this guy like a week ago and I already want him closer to me. I don't like him. There's no way. I'm not that type of person.

"If you didn't want me to come with you, you shouldn't have told me where you were going." Abigail states defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest and getting right into Ben's face. I smile as Ben realizes that he did tell her that, and she would easily be able to figure out where Ben's dad's house was since that was where we going, after all.

I get back in the front seat with Riley and smile as he looks over at me and smiles back. We drive to Patrick's house according to Ben's directions. "Park a few blocks down." Ben tells Riley and I groan. Great, more walking. We get out and walk the few blocks to the house, me wincing as I step on the rocks. Stupid heels.

Ben takes a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. "Dad." Ben says upon seeing his father, almost like he was in shock that he even opened the door. I think he told me it had been a while since they had seen each other.

Patrick remains silent for a moment before speaking up. "So where's the party?" he says, eyeing all of our fancy clothing as I pull Riley's jacket tighter around my body, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

"I'm in a little bit of trouble." Ben says in a hushed voice.

"Is she pregnant?" Patrick asks, gesturing towards Abigail who had a shocked and offended look on her face. I hold back a laugh to keep from being rude.

"Well, if she is, you're going to leave the woman carrying your grandchild standing out in the cold?" Ben jokes with a smile. Abigail wraps her shawl around her, turning to us.

"I look pregnant?" she asks, looking down at her body. I immediately shake my head no, trying to reassure her. She was probably the skinniest one standing here, and that's a fact. It's not like I think I'm fat or anything, but you know, different body sizes and stuff. She was so freaking tiny.

He finally gestures for us to come in, and I latch onto Riley as we walk into the house together. He smiles at me before detaching me from his arm. I was about to protest before he slides his hand down my arm and locks our fingers together. My cheeks immediately blush red and I look away, still holding tightly onto his hand.

"Dad, I need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben tells his father without even missing a beat. I guess we need to get to the point.

Lara walks by, bumping shoulders with me before turning around to look back in my direction. She smiles and gives me a thumbs up while I look down to the ground, hoping that she didn't notice how red my cheeks were.

"It's about the treasure, isn't it?" Patrick mumbles under his breath. "And he dragged you four into all of this?" We silently nod before Abigail speaks up.

"Literally." She looks down to the ground with a small smile on her face, and I had to hold back a chuckle.

"Actually, the three of us volunteered." I say, speaking up and gesturing towards Lara and Riley as well as myself.

"Well, unvolunteer," Patrick says, taking a step closer to us. "Before you waste your life looking for something that doesn't exist." Damn, this guy was really negative. I sigh, rolling my eyes before Riley drags me to the couch to sit down next to him as they continue to discuss treasure. Well, more like argue, but still.

He gets a piece of pizza out before handing me one. I laugh under my breath. "At least I had your mother, for however short a time. What do you have? Them?" Patrick asks, gesturing to us on the couch and Lara getting a piece out of the box. I look up with an offended look on my face, swallowing the piece of pizza that I was eating. I frown before finishing the slice and leaning back on the couch, still not letting go of the computer geek's hand.

"I found the Charlotte." Ben finally says, interrupting his father's ranting as Patrick turns to look at him with an astonished look on his face.

"The Charlotte? You mean she was a ship?" Patrick asks as Ben nods his head, causing Patrick to shake his head in shock. "And the treasure?" The smile on Ben's face immediately falls as he shakes his head.

"Well, no, but there was a clue that led us here." Before he could say anything else, Ben was interrupted.

"And that'll lead you to another clue! And that's all you'll ever find is another clue. Don't you get it, Ben? I finally figured it out. The legend says that the treasure was buried to keep the treasure from the British, but what really happened was the legend was invented to keep the British occupied searching for treasure. The treasure is a myth."

"He's probably right, you know." Abigail says, causing me to roll my eyes. "I mean, you don't even know if there is another clue."

"We can find out." Ben states, turning around and a smile appears on my face as I let go of Riley's hand, standing up. "We can find out right now."

Lara and I get to work setting up a clean and sterile surface for the document as Ben gathers gloves and other things of that nature. Abigail, Ben, and Riley all spread it out on the table as Lara and I watch, I had taken my hair down as well as took of Riley's coat. It was a little too heavy to be doing this.

I watch as Abigail dabs lemon juice on the corner of the Declaration, and her and Ben both breathe on it. I watch in amazement as ink starts to appear on the back of the document and we scramble to get more lemon juice and more heat, which was just hairdryers.

Numbers began to appear, and I look at Riley to see that he had a confused look on his face until Ben explains the code. "Dad, I need the letters now." Ben says, looking up at Patrick who then began stalling and not going to get them. "Dad, the letters." Ben repeats in a much more urgent manner.

"Okay, I don't have them. I donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia." Ben sighs and decides it's time to go as Abigail looks at the cipher in awe. "What is this document anyways?" he asks, lifting it up to see the Declaration, and he had a look of shock on his face. "This will just lead to another clue! There is no treasure. I wasted twenty years of my life and now you've destroyed yours."

Ben looks around at all of us and finally stops at Riley. "Riley, you still got that duct tape in your van?"

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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We had to tie Patrick up, which definitely was not something that I was happy out. Ben gave the reason that it wouldn't look like he was helping us if it looked like we tied him up. In the long run, I guess it made sense, but that didn't stop me from feeling bad.

We all got into Patrick's car, me sitting in the back in between Riley and Lara. Now that I think about it, that hand-holding thing with Riley was pretty strange. I don't even know if I liked him, but for some reason I let him hold my hand. When we were doing so, I couldn't help but feel…I don't know, something running through me. It was almost like sparks.

Yeah, I know how cliche that sounds, but it's also the truth. It was a weird combination of nice and strange. I don't even know what I'm trying to say here.

"Your dad has got a sweet ride." Riley compliments Ben, resting his head on the window. His eyelids were drooping, and it looked like he wanted to fall asleep right then and there. Ben completely ignores what he said as he begins to talk to Abigail. I look to my left and see that Lara was already fast asleep. So much for someone to talk to.

"I think we should change clothes." he says, looking between her and the road. "We look kind of...conspicuous, don't you think?"

"I'd love to go shopping too, but we don't have any money." I speak up, leaning back in the seat and resting my arms behind my neck. This was going to be a long car journey; I might as well get comfortable while I'm at it.

"Here, I took this from his house. He usually tucks a few bills in the pages." Ben says, handing a small book to Abigail without even looking away from the road.

I watch as she dumps the bills onto her lap, and I smile lightly. "Hm, Common Sense. How appropriate." I smirk as I get bored with that and lean back into my seat. I decide to mess with Riley since he was the only one left that would probably actually enjoy holding a conversation with me.

I poke him in the cheek slightly, and I could tell he was faking being asleep by the way his eyelids were fluttering. I smile, getting even closer to him before leaning over and blowing in his ear. He flinches, causing me to laugh as he turns around and glares at me. "What? You're the only person that is conscious and would like to talk to me." I say with a smirk, grinning at him.

He just pouts. "How do you know that I'd like to talk to you?" I give him a mock offended look, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well, fine then." I look forward, pretending to be mad and just cross my arms over my chest, biting the inside of my cheek to contain my smile. He playfully rolls his eyes at me before turning back around and resting his head on the window again. I turn to look at him; now it was my turn to roll my eyes.

Before I could say anything, however, he speaks up. "You're really bad at faking." I bite my lip to keep my laughter in as he gets comfortable in his seat, trying to fall asleep. I smile, looking over at him one last time before I attempt to do the same.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do the same. I don't know how Lara fell asleep in a dress, but I sure as hell couldn't. I was insanely uncomfortable, and I could prop my legs up for the fear that someone would be able to see up my dress. I sigh, rubbing my face in frustration as I watch the sun start to rise. This was going to be a terrible day with no sleep.

We finally get there and I was in charge of waking up Riley for some reason. Regardless, I reach over and shake his shoulder slightly. What happened next took me by surprise. He slowly reaches his arms out, wrapping them around me and pulling me into him. I giggle, but since I knew we had to get going, I had to wake him up.

"Riley, get up!" I exclaim, speaking through my laughs. He jerks awake, releasing me in the process.

"Oh, Ashton, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" I cut off his rambling by placing a hand on his shoulder with a smile.

"It's fine. Now get out of the car. We gotta go shopping." I get out first and he follows me. Ben gave me some money and we split up, agreeing to meet in the clothing store Abigail, Lara, and Ben would be at while Riley and I go to the Silence Dogood letters and get the secret message that was on the back of the Declaration.

I'm pretty sure that Ben did this on purpose, but I don't say anything about it as Riley and I walk down the street to get to the mall. "I seriously can't believe that we did this." I whisper under my breath, trying to make conversation as Riley holds the door open for me and we get into the cool air conditioned air of the shopping center.

Riley nods, agreeing with me. "Yeah, me neither." And that was the end of that. Well, so much for trying to have a conversation.

I just go into a random store and pick the things that I would wear, not even bothering to wait for Riley before going into the dressing room. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Ashton?" Riley's voice calls on the other side. I smile.

"Yeah?" Suddenly I see his hand reach over the door. In his hand is a pair of combat boots. I look around at the stack of clothes I had picked up earlier to see that I had forgotten shoes. I take them from him. "Thanks Riley."

"No problem. I guessed on your size, so hopefully that's okay." I look at the tag on the shoes and nod before I realize that he can't hear me.

"They're good." I slide them on before opening the door, dress and heels in hand before I stuff them into a trash can. That way, they would never be linked to me. I grab a purse off one of the racks and sling it over my shoulder. I'd never know when I needed it, so might as well take it. Riley gives the lady some cash before we go.

"That looks nice on you." Riley says in a quiet voice and I blush, looking towards the ground. Riley clears his throat. "We should probably go."

"Yeah." I nod in agreement, hoping that he didn't notice the red tint of my face. "I don't think we should go in there." I say as we get to the building. "If they found the copies of the Silence Dogood letters, then they'll know that we'll come here." I bite down on my lip as Riley looks at me.

He smiles. "Good thinking. But how are we going to…" he trails off before spotting a school kid walking down the sidewalk. "Hey, kid! You want to make some money?" Suddenly, the kid was interested and I had to hold back a laugh as Riley explains the Ottendorf cipher and hands him a dollar.

"Really?" I laugh, shaking my head.

"It was the best I had!" he defends, sitting on one of the benches across from the building that the school kid just walked into. "Besides, who else would do that for just a dollar?" I smile at him.

"You have a point, Mr. Poole."

"Thank you, Miss Rooker." We just sat there talking about the most random things. Maybe I did like this kid.

Wait, did I really just think that? Did I seriously have a crush on Riley? Now that I think about it, I guess it did make sense, what with the hand holding and the blushing. I only met this guy like two weeks ago. I don't know if things were moving too fast or not. I didn't even know if he liked me back, and I certainly did not want to find out.

Deep in my thoughts, I turn my head to look at him. His brunette hair was probably the best part about him, and the glasses were even better. He was hunched over the newspaper, deep in thought as he tried to make the jumble of letters into actual words. I would have helped, but he pretty much insisted on doing it himself.

He was awesome and kind and funny and handsome… "What are you staring at?" I jump, snapping back to reality at Riley's words. I guess I was staring for too long. Maybe I shouldn't have been in the first place.

"Oh, uh, nothing." I blush and look away. God damn it, Ashton. You realize you like the guy and then you embarrass yourself! Did I like Riley? Thousands of thoughts were rushing through my mind as he just smiles and looks up to see the boy crossing the street.

The boy hands him a sticky note as he sits down next to Riley. "S-S-A-N-D." he says and Riley smiles at him slightly.

"Okay. You sure this is right?" Riley says, looking towards the boy. He gives Riley a look.

"Riley, I think he's sure." I say with a small laugh. Riley rolls his eyes playfully at me before handing the school boy the next sticky note. I don't pay attention to that as it had already happened numerous times before. I look towards the door and widen my eyes at a fleck of blonde hair. Is that…?

I don't have much time to think before Riley starts reading off what we already have. "The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the House of Pass and...Pass and what?"

I shrug my shoulders, and I bite my lip. Was I really going to do this? Hell yes, I was. "Listen, Riley, there's something we need to talk about…" I trail off, biting down on my lip even harder and probably drawing blood. He puts the pencil down and looks at me, crinkling his eyebrows in confusion. "Well, more like something I need to tell you."

I look away to avoid looking into his eyes when I see a white bus with an advertisement for the Liberty Bell. I try to gather my thoughts and what I wanted to say as I focus on just that. "What is it?" Riley asks softly, moving his hand to rest on my knee.

I completely forgot about what I was going to say as the advertisement captures my attention. Pass and...Pass and Stow! Of course I was excited about figuring out the last of the riddle, but I still needed to speak with Riley. I open my mouth before closing it again, seeing the same fleck of blonde hair, but this time, a face to go with it. "Oh shit!" I curse under my breath, grabbing Riley's hand and our bags before taking off down the street.

"We still need the last four letters!" Riley protests from behind me.

"It's Stow! But we need to go!" I yell back, picking up my pace. There's no guarantee that Ian did see me, but I didn't want to mess with my luck, which seemed to be going pretty good right about now.

"What was that all about?" Riley asks, out of breath as we finally come to a stop outside the department store Abigail, Lara, and Ben said they were going to be in.

"I saw Ian." Riley's eyes widen at my words as I push the door open, holding it open for him. "I don't know if he saw us, but I sure as hell saw him."

"How'd you figure out the rest of the clue?" he asks, cocking his head to the side as he crinkles his eyebrows in confusion.

"Easy. John Pass and John Stow." He smiles at me as we walk further into the store to see Abigail, Lara, and Ben at the checkout. "We figured it out." I say proudly, causing all three of them to turn around and look at me.

"You got it?" Ben asks happily, with a smile on his face.

"Oh, we got it. The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the House of Pass and Stow. Now, Pass and Stow, of course, referring to-"

"The Liberty Bell."

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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"Okay, wait, the vision to see the treasured past must refer to a way to see the map." Ben starts off, already starting to pace. "Any ideas?" he asks Lara and I, before I begin to rack my brain, sorting through everything I know about US History.

"I thought the cipher was the way to see the map." Riley states, obviously confused, and it almost made me want to laugh at him.

"No, the cipher was a way to lead us to the way to see the map." Lara says, and Riley just crinkles his eyebrows in confusion, causing me to actually laugh this time.

"The way to see the map will be revealed when the timely shadow crosses the House of the Liberty Bell; Pass and Stow, Independence Hall, right?." I say, and Ben nods.

"Right. And timely shadow, it's a specific time!" Abigail exclaims, looking up at Ben. He smiles down at her before Riley interrupts, asking what the specific time would be. I smile, already coming to the conclusion.

I think Ben realizes the same time I do due to the look on his face as I make eye contact with him. I smile and nod as he hoists the Declaration up higher on his shoulder, making his way past everybody to speak to the lady working at the cash register. "Uh, excuse me? Could I see one of the hundred dollars I just paid you with?"

"No?" she says, more like a question with a weirded out look on her face.

"Oh, well, here." Ben says, pulling up the sleeve of his jacket. "I have this diver's watch, I dive with it. It's actually quite valuable. You can use it as collateral."

"Whatever." the girl says, taking it from him and then handing him one of the hundred dollar bills out of the cash register.

"On the back of a hundred dollar bill," Ben says, turning to us. "there is an etching which is actually a painting that was done by a friend of Benjamin Franklin's in the 1780's. I think that if we look at this clock tower, we'll see the specific time." Ben picks up one of the water bottles on the counter, using it as a magnifying glass.

"What do you see?" Abigail asks, peering over to get a closer look.

"2:22." he says before putting the water bottle down.

"What time is it now?" I ask, intrigued and happy, especially since we were right about the hundred dollar bill. I must say, well played.

"Almost 3." the cashier says, and our faces all fall. Well, so much for that. I let out a sigh, rubbing my head in frustration as Abigail feels the need to state the obvious. Now Ian will probably crack open every part of Independence Hall to get what he is looking for, regardless if he knows about the timely shadow or not.

"No, we didn't." Riley says, causing me to immediately perk up. "We didn't miss it because...you don't know this?" He crinkles his eyebrows in confusion. "I know something about history that you don't know!"

"I'd be very excited to learn about it, Riley." Ben says, resting his hands on the counter in front of us.

"Alright. What I know is that Daylight Savings wasn't established until World War I. If it's 3PM now, okay, that means in 1776, it would be 2PM."

"Riley, you're a genius." I compliment as Ben gets his watch back and we start to make our way down the steps of the store, Riley following behind all of quickly. I laugh as he tries to have another moment of showing up the history buffs, but it didn't work out for him.

It didn't take us that long to get to the Liberty Bell. I mean, we were in Philadelphia already anyways, so it all worked out. We got inside the building and immediately latched onto a tour, and they didn't even notice us. Wow, what great security they've got here.

We went up the steps by stepping over the chain that told us we weren't allowed to go there very easily, and we were constantly looking out to see if anybody was coming. I was secretly looking for Ian, but I wasn't going to let them know that.

The winding staircase to get to the bell was pretty tiring, but once we got up there, the view was absolutely worth it, as well as being able to see the bell. It was the one that replaced the Liberty Bell, and as far as I knew, not many people actually got to see it up close.

"Wow." I say, letting out a breath of awe, causing Lara to smile at me.

"Pretty cool, huh?" she says, coming to stand next to me as we looked over the railing. "It's pretty cool to be up here to begin with, but I think the reason is even cooler." I nod in agreement. I mean, what could be cooler than finding treasure? Probably nothing.

"What bell is this?" Riley asks as he makes it up to the top deck with us.

"It's the Centennial Bell." Lara says, not taking her focus away from the bell that she had suddenly started paying attention to. "It replaced the Liberty Bell in 1876." He nods as he comes to stand by me, and I smile, leaning in slightly, but I doubt he even noticed.

"There it is." Abigail says in awe as we look at the shadow of the steeple pointing to the area where the next clue would be. We all smile as Ben nods his head.

"Alright, I'm going to go down there. Meet me in the signing room." We all nod as he turns to leave.

I smile as Ben disappears down the staircase. I was about to follow him as Abigail and Lara went as well, but Riley grabs me by my elbow and pulls me back. I let out a small smile as I look up at him to see his cheeks were tomato red. "What's up?" I ask, actually growing curious as to why he kept me back when we were supposed to be in the signing room.

"Well, I…" he trails off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I was just wondering what you were going to tell me before we saw Ian. You said it was important, right?" I nod, suddenly becoming interested with the floor, and I rock back and forth on the balls of my feet. That was just nervous habit that I had come to pick up.

"Listen, Riley, I don't think we should talk about it just now. I mean, Ben needs us right now. I promise I'll tell you later." I say, reaching down to his hand before giving it a small squeeze. I turn on my heels and move to the staircase, going down to the signing room.

I could tell by the footsteps behind me that he was following me, and I couldn't help but smile. So he did care about what I was going to tell him. I hope he didn't know just exactly what it was. I mean, I was going to tell him eventually, but I feel like it'd be really weird if he knew beforehand. If he knew that I liked him.

I guess that was going to take some getting used to. It was really weird to consider the fact that this guy - whom I just met - was somebody that I had a crush on. It was strange really. I don't know what it is about him, but something just made me fall head over heels.

Sure, I've had some relationships in the past, but it's weird. I'm not even dating the guy, and yet I feel like this is different. In fact, I know it's different. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. The fact of not knowing makes me just want to rip my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs in frustration. I didn't even know if the guy liked me back, and here I was, getting insanely worked up about it.

Either way, we head down the stairs in silence, and Abigail and Lara were no where in sight, obviously. They were ahead of us by a couple minutes. Finally we got there and Abigail immediately gives us a strange look. "What took you guys so long?"

"Oh, we wanted to stop and look at a couple of things on the way. No big deal." Riley says like it really wasn't. Abigail gives us a skeptical look, but I shake it off as Lara just winks at me. Okay, she definitely knew.

I lean against the wall as we wait for Ben to get back from getting whatever was in the brick wall. Whatever it was, I really hope that it was important and relevant.

As we waited, I kept sneaking a few looks over at Riley. I guess that could be could be considered really creepy, but a lot of things about him fascinated me. There was the way that he had to constantly keep pushing his glasses up whenever he looked down, or the way that he brushed his hair to the side even if it wasn't getting in the way. Maybe they were just little things, but they were really cute little things. Maybe I was a little bit past just liking Riley.

He comes back moments later, and we all snap our attention to him, completely knocking me from my thoughts. "Hey, what'd you score?" Riley asks, but I could tell that he was slightly excited about it.

"I found these." Ben says, reaching into his inside coat pocket and showing us a some form of glasses but they had multiple lenses. "Some kind of ocular device. The vision to see the treasure past?" I smile as he hands Riley the glasses.

We slowly unroll the Declaration before Ben takes the glasses back and looks through. "What do you see?" Lara asks him as I was biting down on my lip super hard; probably hard enough to draw blood.

"It says 'Heere at the Wall', take a look." He hands the glasses to Riley, but before he could take them, Abigail snatches them out of his hand. Riley sighs as I giggle lightly, even though I shouldn't be laughing.

"Why can't it just go here to the treasure, spend wisely?" I smile as Abigail hands me the glasses to look through. It was blue - due to the tint of the lenses - and it had a cross with the trinity symbol and then what Ben said it said.

"Oh no." Ben says, and I look up, seeing what he was looking at. We could see some of Ian's goons through the window. Riley walks up and opens the curtains slightly, confirming it. "Look, we don't want them to have the Declaration or the glasses, but we especially don't want them to have both. We'll separate the lock from the key; we're splitting up."

We do just that. Ben took the empty container for the Declaration as well as the glasses, probably to trick them. Abigail had the actual Declaration with her.

We got stuck in a crowd until I heard yelling behind me. I grab onto Riley, squeezing tightly. He looks toward me before he hears the yelling too. All four of share a look before we break out into a run. I didn't even feel bad about pushing people out of the way. They weren't running for their lives like we were.

We somehow made into a market, and that was when all hell broke loose. We immediately got separated, but Riley grabbed me and dragged me away. We ended up hiding behind a curtain that separated some of the stands, but we pulled it back so it would cover our whole bodies and not just half of our bodies.

I look through the curtain to see Shaw walking across our path. "Holy shit!" I yell, letting the curtain fall back into place, hoping that there was no way he saw us.

"What?" Riley asks, his voice laced with panic.

"Shaw's out there, but I don't know if he saw me." I try to get my breathing under control as I focus all my attention on the ground. The next thing I knew, Riley pulled me into his arms carefully, like I was so fragile that I would break. He strokes my hair softly.

"Hey, don't worry." he says in a reassuring tone. "He probably didn't, and even if he did, we'll be okay, alright?" I nod slowly, looking up at him before resting my head on his shoulder and wrapping my arms around his waist, squeezing tightly. It's just moments like this that confirm my thoughts even more.

"Thanks, Riley." I mumble under my breath before pulling away. "We should probably go find Abigail and Lara." I say with a smile, and he nods before we walk outside the makeshift dressing room to go find the two of them. I almost wish that he would hold my hand, but I don't do or say anything.

The rest was a blur, but I do know that we met up with Abigail and Lara. We were running through the streets, and Abigail made it through, but the rest of us were blocked by a load of people in City Hall. She turns to look at us before running right into a biker and falling to the ground.

It all went in slow motion as the Declaration rolled out of her hands and came to a stop in the middle of the road. When she went to go get it, a semi was conveniently driving in the very spot, and Riley had to pull her out of harm's way. Because of the momentum, they fell to the ground, taking me with them.

I groan in pain as I fall against the concrete, scraping everything up, and I'm positive I heard clothing tear. Sure enough, when I sat up, my sweater was ripped in multiple places. I sigh before looking across the road. Abigail and Riley were already sitting up, and they watch helplessly at the event before them.

Then time stopped as Ian picked up the Declaration.

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**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


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